Specimen C 38098 Balaenoptera physalus

Summary

This Fin Whale washed ashore at Levy's Point Coastal Reserve, Warrnambool, Victoria in 2014. Museums Victoria staff worked with Parks Victoria to recover as much of the animal as possible, including the skeleton, baleen and various tissue samples. Before recovery began many measurements were taken for researchers to use in future. Once the skeleton was stripped as clean as possible most of it was buried in sand at a local farm for eight months to allow the remaining flesh to be broken down by insects and microbes and for some of the oil in the bones to be absorbed by the sand. More oil was removed by further cleaning once the bones arrived at the Museum then they were left outside in a secure location to allow the weather to bleach them even cleaner. The bones were then frozen to kill any insects remaining on them before they were moved into the museum's large object store.